 "Photo: Stephen Durda")
The Austin area has always been home to Texas sharpshooter A.J. Abrams, who hails from Round Rock. And that's not changing for at least another year.
Abrams, who declared for the draft but did not hire an agent, withdrew his name from the draft on Monday and will return for his senior season at Texas.
"I'd like to announce my intentions to remove my name from the 2008 draft and return for my senior year at The University of Texas," Abrams said. "I entered the draft to receive feedback and take advantage of the opportunity to that was presented to me by the NBA to pursue my dream of playing professional basketball."
According to the Sacramento Bee, Abrams had a workout on June 9 with the Sacramento Kings, who had two picks in the second round. Playing the shooting guard position, Abrams is considered too short to play that position in the NBA.
"I received some positive feedback and constructive criticisms from the NBA teams that I worked out for, all of which should help me next year when I go through the process again," Abrams said. "When I sat down with my family and looked at my options, I knew I wanted to come back, finish what I have started and continue to represent the University of Texas to the best of my ability, both on and off the court."
The 5-foot-11-inch guard was the team's second-leading scorer this season, averaging 16.5 points per game for the 31-7 Longhorns. During the NCAA tournament, in which the team went all the way to the Elite Eight, Abrams shot .500 from 3-point land. He led the team in scoring with 20.3 points per game in the NCAA tournament.
The son of a college basketball official, Abrams led the team last season in steals (59) and free-throw percentage (.809). He was named to the All-Big 12 second team.
Abrams is the school's all-time career leader in 3-point field goals made (284) and is 15th on the school's career scoring list (1,389). He is second in free-throw percentage and sixth in 3-point field goal percentage on the UT all-time list.
"We are obviously very pleased with A.J.'s decision to return for his senior year," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "He did exactly what the system allows to get all the information he could. We're proud of him for how he represented himself and our program along the way. He has been a huge part of our success over the last three years, and we know that he'll again be a leader for our team this coming year."
By returning for his senior season, Abrams has the chance to break the school's record for most games played. So far he's played in 109, and the record set by Brian Boddicker and James Thomas from 2001-2004 is 134.
One Texas player who won't be coming back is point guard D.J. Augustin. The team's leading scorer hired agent Thaddeus Foucher at the beginning of the month.
Abrams' return means the team will return four of five starters from last season.
